


Forbidden Fire

by TheAzureFox



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: AIs have alternate names, And Then Some, Canon-Compliant, Gen, based on a theory, technical au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-12-26 21:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12067509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAzureFox/pseuds/TheAzureFox
Summary: An elixir for immortality begins a world-wide genocide.The monsters of Link VRAINS have become real. After the arrival of the "Forbidden Fire", humanity has been left in fear of the virtual monsters that haunt their world.Their only hope?The very same people who have damned them all.(Canon-compliant speculative fic with some AU tendencies. Angelmaker with Shoichi x Ema x Akira)





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue Angel is on a mission and Akira really needs to go to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Essentially, this is based on an idea I had on my Tumblr post here (and yes this is the full url): https://azure-fox.tumblr.com/post/165165447058 /inb4-the-monsters-of-the-vrains-gain-the-same
> 
> This world is assumed to be in the future of VRAINS in which all the current members of the cast know of each other and are working together. This includes the unnamed adult (adults?) and unnamed kids we have yet to see as well as the A.I.'s (the latter of which I'm reusing the Latin names from my previous fic).

Disaster.

That’s the only word Aoi can think of as she watches LINK VRAINS plunge into terror and chaos.

Trickster Holy Angel hovers beside her, the lovely fairy chattering away as her purple eyes stare at the word beneath them. Trickster Lilybell and Trickster Candina linger overhead, the two girl monsters holding up a protective spell so as to keep them from the harm of the various explosions and projectiles that barrage their area.

“Blue Angel,” a voice calls her name and she perks up. “Blue Angel, can you read me?”

Her fingers touch the microphone on her ear and she smiles softly. “I can, Playmaker. How are things over on the south side?”

“Bad,” his monotonous voice tells her. “Three Cracking Dragons are going on a rampage. Firewall and Decode Talker are having trouble taking them all on. Do you know of anyone else in the area?”

Her fingers flick open a screen and she inputs a message into a chat forum. A response appears just as quickly and she shakes her head. “There’s no one yet. However, my brother has offered to send Go to help you. He’s close enough but it’ll take a couple minutes. Are you able to handle being alone that long?”

A pause on the other end of the line.

“Yes, that will work.”

Blue Angel replies to her brother and a confirmation is sent seconds afterwards. “Alright, he should be heading your way.”

“Thank you, Aoi.”

She smiles at the usage of her real name. “Not a problem, Yusaku,” a hand plays with a strand of blue hair. “Just…don’t die on me, alright?”

There’s a huff at that. “I won’t. I know better than that.”

“Of course you do.”

The call is ended and she jumps off the building, the wings on her back spreading out to support her weight. She steps lightly, her monsters following her as a swarm of RAM Clouders bellow beneath. Their bodies spark with electricity and then become discharged in bolts of lightning that slam down upon her forcefield. Lilybell and Candina cry out, wincing, and Holy Angel retaliates with a powerful pulse of green energy. The Cyverse monsters scream and dissipate into particles, vanquishing from the VRAINS.

“Thank you, Holy Angel,” she tells the creature.

The woman fairy chitters with a smile on her lips, wings flapping with excitement at such praise.

“You know,” a voice says and Blue Angel looks down at her Duel Disk, “you shouldn’t let Holy Angel do that. It’s dangerous. She’s strong, yes, but her powers can hurt her allies just as easily if we’re not careful.”

“I’m aware, Aqua,” she tells the blue humanoid A.I. “But we can’t let a flock of RAM Clouders go wild like that. We’ve already suffered from enough power outages as it is and God knows we need anymore duelists off-line.”

Aqua tilts her head. “You humans are peculiar creatures,” the thing muses. “I would’ve thought you’d have given up by now.”

“We can’t do that,” Blue Angel tells her. “Giving up is not an option. As long as there are duelists who can fight in the VRAINS, we have hope. These rogue monsters can only be controlled by us and us alone.”

“Well, and by me too,” the creature chuckles lightly.

Aqua slips out of the Duel Disk to reveal herself as an exquisite blue creature of six wings and a gaping wide maw. She stretches her wings, yawning, and then swoops down to grab at a Great Ogre. She coils around it, chuckling as it tries in vain to attack her, and then she swallows it whole. When she returns alongside Blue Angel, her face is in a mixture of disgust. “How vile.”

“Enjoying yourself?”

“Not that particular creature. That one’s data tasted terrible.”

Blue Angel laughs and then continues stepping forward on an invisible pathway in the sky. Her Tricksters follow beside her, careful and on-edge but smiling as if to ease away Blue Angel’s worries. They were loyal creatures and they were loving towards her. Unlike most of the monsters in Link VRAINS, they were some of the few who stayed beside their masters after being granted what humanity called the “Forbidden Fire”. They had remained loyal to her, protecting her against the aftermath of an event so tragic that it had led to a global genocide.

“Aoi.”

She looks over to Aqua, at the humanoid A.I. who has protected her from near death more times than she can count.

“Yes?”

“You’re thinking about it again. Or, rather, you’re making _that face_ again.”

Blue Angel frowns. “Am I?”

“Is that a yes?”

“I wonder why?”

“…So, yes then.”

“You caught me.”

Aqua shakes her head, the floating teardrops and the golden beads above her head shivering as she does so. “You mustn’t though. There was nothing we could have done. Everything is as it is and the past is in the past. You can’t change a thing.”

“I know that,” she says, quietly. “It doesn’t make anything else less real.”

The creature nuzzles her, closing its eyes and emitting a purring sound from is throat. Blue Angel accepts the gesture, leaning against her partner with a sigh.

“One day, I hope, everything returns to normal for you.”

“Me too, Aqua,” she smiles a bitter smile at the creature, “me too.”

~~~

Akira Zaizen leans back in his chair, removing his hands from his keyboard as he finishes up his response to his sister’s requests. He sighs, rubs at his eyes and then stares at the multiple computer screens that line the hotdog truck. He watches as the screen shifts from place to place, the drones that he has employed flying around and taking in the aftermath of the effects of the Forbidden Fire. He’s so in-tuned to his surroundings that he hardly has time to react as a blanket settles around his shoulders.

“You should sleep, Akira,” Shoichi Kusanagi says to him. “You’ve been up all night now.”

The blue-haired man shakes his head.

“My sister’s still out there,” he says. “I won’t sleep until I know she’s safe.”

The dark-haired man beside him gives a sigh and pats his shoulders. “Aoi will be fine. Yusaku and the others will help her out if needed.”

“I _need_ to be here in case something happens,” Akira insists.

“And it won’t. Trust me, I can take care of things from here.”

“But…”

“Do you want me to call up Ema? I’m sure she’d be willing to help if anything goes wrong with Aoi.”

“…No, I can do this on my own. I’ll be fine by myself, I swear.”

“You’re not fine though,” Shoichi eyes the bags under Akira’s eyes and the way his eyelids struggle against exhaustion. “Come on, I know you want to help your sister but, if she sees you in this condition, she’s going to have my hide for this. Can’t you just take a little nap? I’ll wake you up if anything goes wrong, I promise.”

Akira stares at the man and then, after a long pause of silence, he gets up and out of his chair. He’s led by Shoichi to a hidden compartment in the hotdog truck – a room with a bed full of fluffy pillows and furnished with tons of blankets. The man collapses upon the item, fatigue catching up to him as the soft mattress underneath lulls him to sleep.

He’s dimly aware of Shoichi placing a blanket over him, of lights turning off and a door shutting as Akira’s left to rest.

He goes to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not meant to be told in order and, instead, is going to be a collection of happenings and circumstances surrounding the events following the "release" of the "Forbidden Fire". This series is going to be a more loose story for me to focus on on my leisure time mainly to test how I do with this sort of thing. Also, I really, really wanted to write the entire extended hotdog family interacting and working together instead of them all distant and separated like they are in-show. And what better way to do that then by forcing them all grouping together to fight against a common enemy?
> 
> That said, I also want to focus on relationships both platonic or otherwise as well as explore characters like Hayami (who has been ignored by the show so far) and Kitamura (who has, thus far, been ignored by the fandom outside of his actions in the show and for good reasons too). This is meant to take place farther into canon with obvious AU tendencies regarding the fact that I am NOT writing duels for this story (because duels limit what I can do with this story :') ). 
> 
> From here on out, I'll have different characters showcase their lives in the era of the Forbidden Fire as well as how they interact with others in the cast.
> 
> As for who's next? Take a guess :D


	2. Ema's Apprentice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hayami finds her talent in hacking and Ema Bessho is all too pleased to work with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I would've thought that, after Hayami's debut, there would be more fanfics about her (or, at least, shipping her with Akira) but I haven't seen any stories or actually any artwork regarding her character so here's another one of my fanfictions based around her.
> 
> Also, I get to play around with Ema's feelings towards Akira and Shoichi while also giving her the same subtle character development that I'm giving everyone else.

Hayami was, by nature, a clumsy person. She did not pride herself on it – rather she loathed her inability to keep from flustering, from spilling coffee all over her boss’s desk and offering up only a stuttered response. It had earned her quite a bit of ire from most of her employers but, from Ema Bessho herself, it earned Hayami nothing but amusement.

“You really don’t have to serve me coffee every time you come over here, you know,” Ema says as she accepts a cup from Hayami’s trembling hands. “I appreciate the offer, really, but it’s not needed.”

“B-But I want to!” the girl says, hands bunching up her skirt. “You work so hard and all, after all and I-I just…”

A hand on her shoulder and magenta eyes meet light blue. “Relax, you work just as hard as me. If anything, it’s _you_ who deserves a cup of coffee now and then.”

“Right…” Her response is dubious but, if Ema cares to notice, she makes no change in expression.

Instead, the woman offers up a keyboard and a small round device with a wire hooked into the device. “I trust you can start up on the program I showed you earlier?” Ema asks with a sip, her gaze focused on a blue screen full of white pages of black numbers and code. “Remember, the time bomb program?”

“A-Ah, yes!” Hayami hits a button on a keyboard and a hologram screen appears from the round device. On it, a blank white page shows alongside a small screen on the lower right corner.

She takes a breath in and smiles, her eyes lighting up as black ones and zeros fly across her screen.

Absolutely, there’s one thing Hayami knows for a fact. She may not be good at serving coffee and she may not be good at being _not_ clumsy but, if there’s anything she _is_ good at, it’s at hacking.

Back in the beginning days of the Forbidden Fire, only a certain few had the hacking skills necessary to blockade monsters from accessing the real world. Ema Bessho was one of those hackers. The others consisted of: a teenage boy with a bit of an attitude, a man who seemingly ran a hotdog shop for a living, Hayami’s former boss (a man whose stature attracted her gaze quite often, thank you very much) and another kid who Hayami rarely every met with. They were the professionals, the geniuses among geniuses and the only handful of duelist hackers who were able to fend off the parasites that lived within the veil just past their computer screens.

If, before the events of the end, someone had asked Hayami if she had the capability of a skilled hacker, she would have laughed them off. Hacking was something that only those who lived in the shadows did – a shady means of making money that spelled out the words “terrorism” more often than it did “justice”. Not only that, but she had no experience in the field whatsoever. Hacking was beyond her – it was a no man’s land of ones and zeroes and, despite what anyone else might have said, she would never have thought to be qualified for the job.

How things change.

It all started when the number of hands on deck grew short. The group led by Playmaker (and therefore forever known as Playmaker’s “flock”) were a talented bunch, good at hacking and good at dueling, but they were rather limited. They did their best to patch up the entrances into the real world from the VRAINS one, to create barriers and fences that kept the Tindangle Hounds and the Evilswarm Mandragoras from seeping through, but they could not fend off against every corner of destruction. Eventually, the monsters got through. Eventually, the people of world got turned into ones and zeros and were sucked into the VRAINs and made prey for its inhabitants. Those who followed under the legendary Playmaker were short on numbers and few on the ability to constantly counteract the unknown.

And, that was why Ema Bessho had begun to train Hayami. Of course, the woman knew she wasn’t the only one. There were dozens and dozens of others recruited – most of which already knew how to hack and who wanted to help the cause – but Ema had still come to her.

“I’ve taken an interest in you,” was the woman’s only excuse when Hayami was whisked from the duelist mentoring shelter she’d been settled in and into the realm of an underground training camp. “I only want to see how well you perform. If you do well and pick up the concepts quickly, I will teach you myself. If you don’t, however, you’ll be forced to train as a duelist like everyone else in this God-forsaken city, alright?”

Hayami had made a hasty agreement, uncertain and unclear as to why Chief Zaizen’s associates would take an interest in her (she was clumsy and a rather forgetful background character, wasn’t she?) but eager to please nonetheless.

Ema was a startlingly beautiful woman, a pleasant sight who easily drew the eyes and who also beckoned the attention of all those around her. Ema Bessho was confident, maybe even arrogant (judging by the way she seemed to inflate the vanity of her looks), but she was cunning. And, Hayami knew _cunning_ when she saw it. The amusement on bright lips, the way her eyes smiled but did not soften…she was much like Chief Zaizen, honestly. There was rather an air of coldness around her, a frosty layer of snow and ice that reflected her precious beauty…but it also sang of a soul bitter and lost.

Regardless, Hayami thought little of Ema and her personal life. Rather, she was wowed by the woman’s expertise, wooed on by the slender fingers that beckoned her attention and the polished magenta eyes which groomed over Hayami with distant delight. She began teaching Hayami with a simple lesson: never let your guard down.

“Not even around cute guys, alright? I mean, yeah, sure, the monsters around the corner are always a big issue but that well-groomed man right there isn’t necessarily meant to be eye candy either.”

It was completely unexpected of her but, in a way, Hayami supposes that’s how Ema was. The pink-haired woman beckoned attention wherever she went – she was not the type who shied away from other’s gazes but, rather, she embraced them. Every step Ema made was flawless, every gesture was intentional, every word was meant to soothe and encourage. She was well-respected, it seemed, as every girl and boy under her command took well to her guidance and influence. However, much like her aforementioned words had suggested, she did not stop to fiddle around with those who pined for her. Rather, she beckoned attention only to use it to her advantage, planting thoughts in other’s minds and encouraging them to work with the graciousness of her presence.

After a short amount of time of training, Ema took an immediate shine to Hayami. She introduced the woman to the rest of her “hacking pack” (as Ema like to refer to her coworkers as) and invited Hayami over to a computer that was right beside her own.

“Right, I’ll begin with the very essentials of hacking, alright?” Ema sat her down in a leather chair and then took a seat in a similar one that was spitting stuffing out from the seams. “First, I’ll teach you that. Then, it’ll get complex fast. My basic advice? Use what you’ve already learned to code things in your favor.”

Hayami had been uncertain about such terms. She did well under pressure, sure, but she was never the best in school. Math, science, social studies and the likes…she’d done average in them, honestly. But, hacking? That was something she was sure was far beyond her head. She’d never been into it, never conceived it as an option in her career but, now, Ema was forcing it into her hands.

Still, Hayami wasn’t one to slack off and pretend it wasn’t something she could at least _try_. So, under Ema Bessho’s guidance, the brown-haired woman went to work. She typed one’s and zero’s into a keyboard, eyes glued to the screen as she labored.

In a way, hacking was loads easier than dueling. With dueling, you had to be careful which cards you played with, what paths you choose and what paths you ignored. There were also rules and regulations – too many honestly – and loads of techniques and skillsets to keep in mind. Hacking, however, required attention to detail and the knowledge of what characters represented what and how everything fit together like one big jigsaw puzzle.

And, she was good at it. For one reason or another, Hayami was good at hacking. She earned Ema’s praises the moment she managed to take down a firewall within their first few days of training – a firewall coded by none other than Ema Bessho herself.

“You’re a natural,” Ema tells her time and time again. “And, for that, I think you’ll become my star pupil.”

“Star pupil” was not what Hayami had had in mind when she’d accepted Ema’s request but the warmth from such words had encouraged the younger woman onwards. Hayami was earnest to do anything that wouldn’t earn her a scolding – she’d had way too much scorn cast in her direction due to clumsy missteps and coffee spillings – and if hacking was the way to go about that than she’d certainly do her best to impress her teacher. No doubt about it. If she found her calling in life than she wasn’t to avoid it.

Hayami was going to become a hacker.

~~~

Over time, Hayami noticed that her mentor tended to bring in certain kinds of guests.

Most noticeably, Hayami noticed that Ema was friends with the bringers of the Forbidden Fire and Hayami’s former boss himself.

On occasion, a group of kids would bunch their way into Ema’s “hacker lair”, cautious and jumpy but never the less insistent to be in the pink-haired woman’s presence. Among this group, Hayami recognized a fair bunch. One was Yusaku Fujiki (alias Playmaker), the hero of the VRAINS and yet also it’s main destroyer. Aoi Zaizen, daughter of a formerly large company (and real life identity of the virtual celebrity duelist, Blue Angel). Go Onizuka, another celebrity duelist whose admiration for kids went far beyond just a superstar’s obligation.

There were, of course, three others, but Hayami neglected to see or care much about them. They were always there to request programs from Ema, to request firewalls or virtual bombs or the likes to aid in their tasks in the VRAINS. Ema seemed to not mind such favors. Rather, she took them in stride, obeying their wishes like it somehow benefitted her. Hayami never saw money passed between them but she always figured it wasn’t her business, anyways.

The other visitors were quite peculiar. One was a handsome man who owned a hotdog wagon – Shoichi Kusanagi. She’d never really talked to the man, only chatting him up on occasion as she led him to Ema’s headquarters, but he was decent enough. His words were amiable, his gaze kind and understanding when she stuttered along, but he was as distant as he was social. If anything, his interest in her was always vague. Polite, but vague.

Another was a man Hayami was quite familiar with. Akira Zaizen, former head of Security of a formerly existing company, he was also Hayami’s former boss. A man of great elegance and posture, he was very much the eye-candy Ema always warned her against. Polite but firm, a man of power and a man of cool, calm intellect, he was a swoon-worthy sight in Hayami’s own opinion.

Regardless, both Shoichi and Akira were constant guests in Ema’s presence. Unlike the kids, who always came to visit out of the need to pick up a certain program, the two men visited to, as Hayami observed, spend time in Ema’s company.

It was rather, peculiar, honestly. Whenever Hayami informed her superior of either of their arrivals, the pink-haired lady would giggle and her eyes would brighten at such prospects. She’d drop whatever she was doing to attend to her guests. Ema had a special interest in both Shoichi and Akira, one that would make her smile in distant intrigue as she greeted them time and time again. If Hayami didn’t know better, she’d say Ema had some sort of infatuated curiosity invested in the both of them.

With Shoichi, Ema was very open, very teasing. She was quick to make the other man fluster, always letting a hand linger on his shoulder or leaning close to him to grab his attention. Shoichi never seemed truly uncomfortable with such displays. Sure, he fidgeted and stuttered on his otherwise calm words, but he seemed more at ease in Ema’s presence than he did with anyone else. He even seemed disappointed in the few times where their talks became nothing less than serious and where Ema neglected in her normal mischievous displays.

With Akira, however, Ema was a whole different story. She was still very playful, still very childish in her mannerisms of grabbing attention, but she was more…sober, for lack of a better word. Ema was always looking for an opening in his defenses, eager to get a smile or a laugh out of him, and while she succeeded sometimes others, however, led to a scowl from Akira himself. The man was a very patient soul, very tolerant, and, as Ema occasionally tried to provoke a reaction out of him, he’d only lend her a patient sigh and a patient smile. With him, she was more childish but also very subtle, a far-cry from the teasing self that she played in front of Shoichi himself.

One time, when Hayami had finally gotten the courage to ask about it, she’d questioned Ema on her relationship status.

“Why do you always hang around those two?”

“You mean Akira and Shoichi?” Hayami had nodded and the woman continued on. “Hah, I don’t know. What do you think?”

An open invitation to Hayami’s thoughts on the subject. “Are they possibly your l-lovers?”

Bright red lips opened and pink eyes met stuttering blue. “Hmm, now there’s an interesting suggestion,” Ema had taken a seat and had begun to fidget with her legs, crisscrossing them back and forth. “I might be tempted to say yes. I might be tempted to say no.”

“T-That’s not an answer!”

“It’s up to interpretation, then.” She’d stood and said her dues, waving goodbye as yet another day came to an end. “I don’t mind what you think – it’s up to you yourself to make your own conclusions.”

And, as Ema exited the office and into the presence of the two men who sat waiting for her at the entrance, Hayami did indeed make her own conclusion.

“You love them both, don’t you, Ema?”

But the woman was far too gone to answer such rhetorical questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to align Hayami in this chapter as much to her canon self as possible while sprinkling in a bit of maturity to her character (as it's hinted she went through character development somewhere down the road). 
> 
> Also...world-building!
> 
> In this fanfic, though it's not really stated clearly, Ema gets to train up a bunch of hackers to basically fend off monsters of the VRAINS from entering into reality through the virtual network. Since she's one of the most skilled hackers that Playmaker's group has (and the one with the most free time on her hands, too) she gets to train others in the way of making virtual weapons/building virtual blockades to keep people from Earth from being turned into data and being made a forced prisoner in the VRAINS (until a monster eats them and leaves their "soulless" body behind in the real world, of course).


End file.
